


Soy Sauce Kisses

by misura



Category: Primeval
Genre: Community: smallfandomfest, Food, M/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-13
Updated: 2010-07-13
Packaged: 2017-10-25 22:45:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/275663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>"Did you just lick my nose?"</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Soy Sauce Kisses

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: _Nick/Stephen, sharing takeout_

Stephen knew he had a problem when Nick got soy sauce on his nose and Stephen's first thought was that it made him look rather cute, as opposed to a stubborn, hurt human being who ought to be spending his evenings and nights at home, instead of at work.

"This can't be healthy." Even Stephen himself didn't know if he was referring to Nick's obsession with not going home, or his own growing obsession with Nick. Perhaps both, although he rather hoped Nick wouldn't know about the second.

Nick, being Nick, assumed he refered to the food. "It's got vegetables in it," he said, picking up something that looked vaguely green-ish with his chopsticks and holding it up. "See? Healthy."

"Really." It was always easier to let it go. "And what vegetable would that be, Cutter?"

Nick popped the probably-a-vegetable into his mouth, grimaced and swallowed it quickly. "Not my field of expertise." He grinned at Stephen, inviting him to grin back and drop the matter of Nick's health.

"Look." It wasn't as if Stephen didn't want to drop the matter, too. He felt he owed it to Nick to be honest, though, to tell the truth even if Nick didn't want to hear it. Part of the truth, anyway. "You've been practically living in this place for what - three years?"

They both knew exactly how long it had been, of course. "Closer to four." Since Helen had disappeared.

"You can't keep doing this to yourself," Stephen said. Nick still had soy sauce on his nose.

"I can do whatever I damn well please to myself." Nick looked a little tired, though. "And anyway, what about you? You spend as much time here as me, and your wife didn't vanish without a trace four years ago. So what's your excuse, Stephen?"

 _I loved her, too,_ Stephen didn't say, mostly because he didn't think it had ever been true. She'd been Nick's wife, Nick's _world_ it had sometimes seemed. He'd been curious and a little stupid, and she'd been - well, he had no idea why she'd shown any interest in him. Stephen knew _he_ wouldn't have been interested in anyone not Nick if the two of them had been in a commited relationship.

"You need someone to take care of you," he said, making it sound like a joke, a bit of friendly teasing.

Nick scowled. "I don't need a keeper."

"Just someone to order the take-out," Stephen said, gesturing at the food. Nick had a phone, too, of course, but he rarely used it. Without Stephen around, Nick might well forget to eat at all - or exist on a diet of whatever he found in his drawers and the halls of the university.

"You worry too much." Nick's voice had gone soft. "You worry far, far too much."

"Someone has to." These days, there seemed to be very few things Nick actually cared for, let alone worried about. There was his work, mostly - his research - and there was Stephen, or so Stephen liked to think. Nick's students were part of his work; a rather neglected and not entirely welcome part, really. Stephen remembered a time when hardly a day had passed without their welcoming a visitor to the office; nowadays, it was rare to get even one visitor in a month.

People said Nick had changed after Helen's disappearance. Stephen rather wanted to believe that wasn't true, that Nick just needed some time.

Of course, four years might be rather stretching the term.

"What about _your_ life?" It was nice to see Nick passionate about something other than the mystery of his wife's disappearance, really it was. "You're just going to put it on hold indefinitely?"

 _Isn't that what_ you're _doing?_ Stephen didn't ask. "I'm not complaining," he said instead.

"You should be. When's the last time you had a date?" Nick pressed.

"Tonight." Stephen wasn't sure what possessed him to say that. "With you."

Nick took it as a joke, of course. "This isn't a date."

"Dinner and a movie." Stephen grinned. "Sounds like a classic to me."

Nick played along. "Am I supposed to ask you to come inside for a cup of coffee at the end of the night, then?"

"I guess that depends on whether or not that old coffee machine of yours still actually works." Stephen rather suspected it might have broken down due to lack of use. Helen had liked a cup of coffee in the morning, but Nick only drank the stuff occasionally and unenthusiastically, when Stephen brought him a cup. Stephen's own coffee machine was probably in an only slightly better state.

Nick chuckled. "Actually, when people ask you that, they're asking if you want to have sex."

"You're kidding me." Stephen widened his eyes in an expression of dishonest surprise, just to keep that grin on Nick's face.

"It must really have been a while if you'd forgotten that."

Stephen smiled and thought about leaning over and licking the soy sauce off Nick's nose. "I can't say I miss the whole dating thing." Nick was hardly in any position to point fingers there, he felt. On paper, he was as single as Stephen - in reality, well. Stephen knew he wasn't going to meet another Nick in a bar, let alone take him to dinner and home afterwards. That rather settled things, as far as he was concerned. No point in looking when you already knew you weren't going to find what you wanted.

Nick gave him a searching look. "Indeed? No special someone for you out there, then?"

"You're my one and only." It wasn't the first time Nick had brought up the topic of Stephen's love life - or lack thereof, as Nick saw it. Nick never quite seemed to pick up on the fact that Stephen's joking about not needing anyone but Nick was anything more than simply that: Stephen making a joke.

It was frustrating, even if it also was just like Nick. "Oh, stop it, you're making me blush." Nick wasn't actually blushing, naturally. Stephen thought it would look good on him, to blush. Cheeks flushed, his expression a little shy and uncertain ... rather sexy, in a Nick kind of way. Not that Nick needed any help in that department.

"You've got some rice on your cheek," Nick said, nicely ruining the moment.

Stephen reached for a napkin at the same time as Nick reached for him. Their hands brushed, and Nick grinned in a way that looked a little sheepish. "Here, let me."

Nick's hand felt warm and soft against Stephen's cheek. It was probably just Stephen's imagination that it lingered a little, or that Nick was blushing very slightly as he pulled it back.

Stephen figured he might as well take his chances. "There's some soy sauce on your nose." It didn't quite feel all right to just do as Nick had done, though. "May I?" he asked.

"By all means." Nick sounded amused. Hardly like someone who suspected Stephen might want to touch a lot more of him than only his nose.

Stephen had been meaning to use a napkin, really he had. At the most, he'd have imitated Nick, and licked his fingers clean, after. For some reason, his brains seemed to have decided to skip the first part of that scenario though.

Nick went very still for a few seconds. Stephen tried to look like he hadn't just - "Did you just lick my nose?" Nick's tone gave away absolutely nothing.

"You had soy sauce on it," Stephen reminded him. "It seemed the quickest way."

Nick raised one eyebrow. "You're going to lick any part of my body I get soy sauce on?"

Stephen told himself that question probably didn't mean what he thought it meant. "Sure," he said cautiously. "Like I told you: quickest way." To drive him absolutely crazy, among other things.

"You know, I really _like_ this shirt," Nick said. "I don't think I'd want to spill soy sauce on it."

"Well, I wouldn't lick your shirt, anyway."

Nick chuckled. "I wouldn't exactly expect you to. Plenty of skin under it, though."

O-kay. Stephen had to admit there really weren't too many ways to interpret that one aside from the obvious. "What are you getting at here, Cutter?"

"I'm propositioning you." And that one wasn't exactly easy to mistake, either. "Because I thought you might be interested - seeing as how you just licked my nose and all that."

"Are you?" Stephen didn't want Nick to throw him some kind of pity-fuck. He'd take it if it was on offer - he wasn't _that_ immune to temptation, and he was reasonably confident he'd be able to give Nick a really good time - but it wasn't what he really wanted from Nick.

"Am I what?"

"Interested," Stephen said. "In me. That way."

"Isn't that what I just said?" Nick was beginning to look a little uncertain. "If I misunderstood, I - "

"No." Stephen leaned forwards and kissed him.

When they broke apart, Nick was grinning and looked happier than Stephen had seen him for the past four years. "Did I have soy sauce on my lips now?"

"Mm. Don't think I got it all."

"Sloppy. Guess you'd better try again, then."


End file.
